Big-hitter Rinku Singh not finding a place in the Indian main squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in America surprised former all-rounder Irfan Pathan and ex-Australia skipper Aaron Finch, but the legendary Sunil Gavaskar attributed this to the poor form of the left-handed batsman in the ongoing IPL. The BCCI on Tuesday announced a 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup in the US and West Indies in June, with the middle-order batsman, who has played 15 T20Is, remaining in the reserves along with Shubman Gill, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.
Pathan was one of the most vocal former players after the announcement and opined about 'X' that “Rinku's recent past performances for Team India should not have been ignored.” Former Australian white-ball skipper Finch said he was “surprised” by the fact that the BCCI selectors picked four spinners in the side and not Rinku.
“I was surprised by the four spinners. I had Rinku in and only two spinners,” Finch told Star Sports.
West Indian great Ian Bishop also expressed his surprise over Rinku's exclusion and said, “So when you talk about surprises, I think Rinku Singh has done enough in international cricket. He has an average of well above 60 or 70 in T20Is to retain a place.” in the 15.
“So that's the one thing that made my ears perk up. So I'm just saying that the extra spinner, someone like Axar (Patel), has been preferred to Rinku,” Bishop told Star Sports.
However, Gavaskar felt that Rinku's form in the ongoing IPL had to do with him not being included in the main squad. “Maybe his form in this particular edition of the IPL hasn't been great. He hasn't had that many opportunities, maybe that's why they (the selectors) haven't picked him,” Gavaskar told Sports Today.
He said he would have liked to see someone like left-handed pacer T Natarajan in the World Cup squad.
“I was thinking more about T Natarajan, the left-handed bowler. He bowls extremely well, so I thought he could have been in the team.”
The former India captain had no doubt that the Rohit Sharma-led side would do well in the marquee event.
“I don't know the reason, but this Indian team looks a very good team, there is no doubt about that. It has a lot of experience, they have some real big hitters, they have variety in bowling too,” he opined.
India will go into the showpiece with four spinners – Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav – and just three specialist fast bowlers, but Gavaskar felt along with all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who was named Rohit's deputy on Tuesday, that they will doing. do the duty of a fourth seam.
“Well, there is Hardik Pandya to bowl as well as the fourth-seam bowler, so maybe that is the reason they (selectors) have gone with four spin bowlers. The pitches in the West Indies… there will still be a little more his help for the spinners than for the fast bowlers.
“As we have seen in the IPL, the slower the pitches, the harder it is for the batters to hit and that is perhaps why they have gone with extra spinner,” Gavaskar said.
Gavaskar sensed a glut problem and Shubman Gill's “patchy” performance in the IPL led to the selectors considering him only as a reserve player.
“That's the blessing that India has, they have so many players. In fact, if you can create a second team, with a bit of luck that team will also be able to win this cup.
“So sometimes that happens, sometimes you have to leave out a good player, that seems to have happened with Gill. Again, his form in the last few games has been patchy. He started the IPL very well but the last few games have been patchy what cost GT wins, GT didn't score, they didn't win,” said Gavaskar.
Gavaskar felt that a change in “attitude” and “approach” in the Indian side, which had failed to make an impact in the previous two editions of the T20 World Cup, could see the Rohit-led team lift the trophy can drag.
“There have been changes in attitude and approach, which we saw during the Over-50s World Cup (last year in India), and that bodes well for this World Cup (T20) as well.
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